The police responsible for explaining the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian expert Bruno Pereira at Amazon said on Friday that this double murder was “without a sponsor” from a “criminal organization”, a controversial version of an association of indigenous peoples.
Elements of the investigation suggest that the killers acted alone, there was no sponsor, no criminal organization behind the killings.explained the federal police in a press release.
The investigation is ongoing and we have indications that someone else may have been involved in the crimesaid Brazilian police, who have so far arrested two suspects.
One of them, a 41-year-old fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, said Peladoadmitted Tuesday night to burying the corpses and brought police to the exact spot the next day.
The human remains found at this research site were flown to Brasilia on Thursday, where they are being examined. According to federal police, they have 99% probability to belong to the same man.
Dom Phillips, 57, and Bruno Pereira, 41, a recognized indigenous expert, are on Amazon as part of an environmental protection book.
They were last seen on June 5, as they boarded a boat heading to Atalaia do Norte, in the Javari Valley, an area known to be dangerous where there are many illegal operations related to drugs, fishing or gold panning.
A criminal group, according to UNIVAJA
The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA), whose members actively participated in the search, refuted the police version on Friday.
Not just two killers, but an organized group that planned the crime down to the smallest detail.UNIVAJA said in a statement, explaining that the authorities have ignored many complaints about the activities of criminal groups in the region.
In particular, this organization sent a report to the authorities in April in which that was explained Pelado is involved in illegal fishing activities and has previously been accused of committing shooting attacks in 2018 and 2019 against a FUNAI basethe Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs.
UNIVAJA evokes a powerful criminal organization that tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation in the double murder, remembering that Bruno Pereira was the subject of death threats.
Some experts believe that illegal fishing of endangered species in the Javari Valley, in most cases, is under the control of drug traffickers who use the sale of fish to launder money on drugs.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
